


Vices and Virtues

by LittleMissWolfie



Category: Sin With Me (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Post Darius S2, Pregnant Sex, Smut, Team as Family, Unplanned Pregnancy, Will have a happy ending, possible smut in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-12-23 23:28:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21089594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: A few weeks after Darius's departure from Las Vegas, Yi Cheng discovers something that will change her life forever.





	1. into a place thoughts can bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Okay.
> 
> So.
> 
> Ever since I started playing Lovestruck in February of this year, I thought Mac was the best route the app had to offer, but now I think Darius is a close competitor. The writing in his route is just... so beautiful... I never thought I would love him as much as I do, but here we are. And it's really a crime that there's so little fan content out there for him (like, I get the love for Onyx, because she's also amazing, but she dominates quite a bit of the SWM discussion, in my opinion), so I got this idea in my head and I couldn't let it go.
> 
> I consulted a good friend of mine who studies Chinese language and culture in college when deciding on the main character's name, and we decided on the name Yi Cheng (成毅), which translates to "become resolute." I thought this was a great fit for SWM's MC and the character development she undergoes in Darius's route. 
> 
> I'll put additional stuff (like the timeline I'm imagining) in the end notes so as not to clutter this up too much. I hope y'all enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

“Well, shit, that explains a lot.”

Usually when Yi mutters this to herself while she sits in the bathroom, it’s to the sight of a red stain on her undies and the feeling of someone punching her repeatedly in the uterus. Her periods have always been rough, and the PMS that precedes it turns her into a weepy mess. 

She hadn’t thought anything weird of her intense emotions the past few weeks, with the whole Darius thing. She can’t even remember how many times she cried before she told Darius to go. It was only natural for emotions to be high during a crisis like that, right?

But then she started throwing up.

And, listen. Yi isn’t stupid. Sure, she dropped out of med school, but she got into med school before that, so she has some brains. And she got a year or two of schooling in before she dropped out, too, so she knows more about health than a lot of other people. She knew she didn’t have the flu (she had no other symptoms) or food poisoning (she hadn’t had anything new to eat and all her food was cooked the same way it always was) or anything other common thing that could be causing nausea like this.

So, she checked her period tracker.

And she’s two weeks late.

“Okay, Yi, calm down,” she says to herself. “Nothing’s definite yet. It could just be stress.”

*

It’s not just stress.

*

Yi can’t bring herself to tell her mom right away. After that conversation they had about Darius, curled up together on the shop floor, she feels like it would disappoint her. So, instead, she calls one of the only people she can.

Onyx comes waltzing into the shop with all her usual grace, but her face belies her worry. “Hey, sweetheart,” she says, hopping over the counter she could have easily walked around and wrapping her arms around Yi’s shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Yi quickly flips the sign on the door to closed and turns back to her friend. “I fucked up,” she says, and she hates that her voice cracks a little. 

“Oh, honey, it can’t be that bad.”

“I’m pregnant.”

*

The rest of the troupe arrives in short order, and Cal even brings Avi, which is a surprise to Yi. It feels surreal, meeting in the bike shop instead of at the circus or their apartment, but if Yi leaves the shop unattended again her mom may actually kill her, pending grandchild or no.

“And you’re sure it’s Darius’s?” Wrath asks after she’s done explaining.

Yi levels her with an annoyed look from the stool Onyx and Malakai insisted she sit on. “It’s not like I’ve been sleeping around or anything like that. Darius is the only person I’ve been with since college.”

Avi tugs on her jacket, and when she looks down, he has an astonished expression on his face. “There’s a  _ baby  _ in your tummy?”

“There sure is, bud.”

His small hands touch her stomach, and his face screws up. “I can’t feel it!”

Malakai laughs. “The baby has to grow a little more before you’ll be able to feel it.”

“You’ll be the first to know when it moves,” she tells Avi, very seriously, and this seems to appease him.

Cal is watching their interaction carefully but, oddly enough, he’s not glaring at Yi like he usually does. “You’re keeping the baby, then?” he asks, his voice soft.

The rest of the troupe sucks in huge breaths, like they’re waiting for an explosion. And, usually, they’d be right. Yi and Cal have never really gotten along, after all, and their relationship only got worse when he started fighting against Darius. But Yi can hear the real question Cal is asking. “Yes,” she says. “This is my baby.”

She never saw herself becoming a mother at such a young age, but as soon as she even suspected herself of being pregnant, she was in love. The thought of abortion or adoption never even crossed her mind.

Cal nods. Then, he kneels next to her stool and hugs her.

And she lets herself cry.

*

They decide as a group that Yi should move into the apartment with the troupe.

Part of it is so they can keep an eye on her. She’s having a demon’s baby, after all, and no one knows how that will progress. It only makes sense for Las Vegas’s premiere demon experts to keep her as close as possible. 

Another part of it, Yi thinks, is that the apartment feels a little too big without Darius in it. No one says it, but it’s obvious they’re thinking it, because she’s thinking it, too. She only knew Darius for a few months before she told him to leave, but the troupe has been living and working with him for years, so the loneliness she feels, how she’s a little too cold at night without Darius at her back, how sometimes her fingers twitch like they’re looking for his hand… all those things must be even worse for them.

“You can have Darius’s room,” Wrath says as she and Onyx help her pack up her clothes. “You’ve spent enough nights there already, and I’m sure you would’ve moved in eventually, once Darius got back.”

Onyx rocks a little onto her toes, eyes sparkling. “We can even set up a nursery! We have plenty of unused rooms around!”

Yi makes herself laugh. “The baby isn’t even an inch long yet.” When she says “the baby,” her hand falls to her stomach. It’s still flat, for now. Most women don’t start showing until their second trimester, if she remembers correctly, and she figures she’s less than eight weeks along. “Let’s at least wait until we can tell the sex.”

“Are you gonna be one of those people that insists on blue for boys and pink for girls?” Onyx’s tone indicates she disapproves of this. “That’s so  _ boring.” _

Yi shakes her head. “No, nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?” Wrath asks.

“I’m not out of the woods yet,” Yi admits, her fingers curling on her stomach. “The first trimester is when a person is most likely to miscarry, and I’ve been drinking at the circus almost every night since Darius left.” Concern and understanding dawn in Wrath and Onyx’s eyes, but Yi barrels on. “I need to see an obstetrician and take it easy for another month or two before I start decorating a nursery.”

Wrath squeezes her shoulder. “We’ll take care of it,” she promises. “You won’t have to lift a finger.” Then a pained look crosses her face, and Yi wonders why, until she continues, “But first, you have to tell your mom.”

Oh,  _ shit. _

*

The troupe takes what they’ve packed up in the jeep and drive it to the apartment while Yi waits for her mom to come in. She’s out running errands right now, and Yi feels full of nervous energy, her knee bouncing under the counter as she waits. Her phone, now filled with the rest of the troupe’s phone numbers (and isn’t it just the weirdest thing, that after everything they’ve been through together, her getting pregnant is what prompts them to exchange phone numbers?) feels like lead in her jacket pocket, waiting for her text to say she’s ready to go.

A few customers come in, grumbling about her extended lunch break (how she explained away her packing), and whenever she has to pull a bike from the rack, she’s very careful to keep the wheels and frame and handlebars away from her stomach. She’s  _ so _ not in the mood for customer service today, and every transaction makes her want to scream. All she wants is to curl up in Darius’s bed and go to sleep and pretend he’s with her for a little while.

_ God, shut up, _ she thinks to herself, annoyed.  _ He’s only been gone a few weeks. You lived more than twenty years without him, grow up. _

The bell above the door chimes, and Yi looks up, ready to be irritated by another customer, but freezes when it’s her mom, struggling with a stack of cardboard boxes. “Oh, Yi, good. Come help me with these boxes.”

So Yi does, grabbing the top few boxes out of her mother’s arms and carrying them to the storage room in the back. They’re not too heavy, thank god; she doubts her mom would appreciate her dropping merchandise. She’s still not carrying as many boxes as she would have a week ago, and from the noise her mom makes, her mom notices, too. 

“So, what’s up?” her mom asks her when the boxes are safely stored behind the locked door. “There’s been something on your mind lately. Talk to me.”

Yi takes a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then, appropriately steeled, she turns around to face her mother. “I’m moving out,” she says.

Her mother, to her credit, doesn’t look too phased. “I’m surprised you stuck around as long as you did,” she jokes. “Most kids can’t wait to get away from their parents. Are you thinking of staying in Las Vegas or going somewhere else?”

“No, Mom. I’m moving out today.”

_ That,  _ at least, gives her some pause. “That’s awfully fast.” Her eyes narrow like they always do when Yi is in trouble. She wonders if her child will see that expression from her, too. “Or have you been planning this and just forgot to tell me?”

“No, it was pretty last minute.” As in, just decided today, but her mom doesn’t need to know that. “My friends asked me to move into their apartment and helped me pack up my stuff during my lunch break.”

Her mom arches an eyebrow. “Are these Darius’s friends?” Yi’s silence must be answer enough, because her mom sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Yi, honey, I’m so glad you have friends again, but I think putting some distance between you and the people Darius works with is for the best. He’s been gone for a few weeks; maybe it’s for the best if you just let him go.”

Yi meets her mother’s gaze. “He’s going to come back, Mom. He promised me he would.”

“Why did he leave in the first place?”

“I told him to.” When her mother makes a confused face, she continues, “He’s been struggling a lot with his identity and he’s convinced he’s a monster. I told him to put some distance between him and his work, grow as a person, and come back a better man.”

“I told your father something like that, once,” her mother says.

Yi winces. “It’s a little like looking in a mirror,” she says, and her mom goes quiet. Pale.  _ Well, fuck it. _ “I’m moving out because I’m pregnant, Mom.”

“Oh, Yi…”

Yi lets her mother gather her in her arms. “I’m sorry,” she says.

“What for?”

“For getting pregnant so young. I know you wanted better for me.”

Her mom cups her face with her hands, so gentle, so warm. “I want you to be happy, above everything else.”

“I love you,” Yi says, because it feels like a good time to say it.

“I love you, too.” Her mom kisses her forehead. “I would support you, if you wanted to keep living here.”

“I know you would, but the troupe has a lot more money than us, and I don’t want to be more of a financial burden on you than I already am.”

“Yi…”

“Plus,” Yi jokes, “they’re going to give me a card linked to Darius’s bank account so I can spend his money on his baby.”

Her mom laughs and, for a moment, her worries seem a bit farther away than they were a little bit ago.

*

Onyx offers to sleep with her the first night, but Yi turns her down. “I can’t make you stay with me until Darius comes home.” Then, she pauses. “Maybe, if Ripley doesn’t mind…?”

Onyx laughs. “Yeah, she’s a way better cuddler than me, anyway. I’ll ask if she doesn’t mind bunking with you tonight.”

“Thank you.” Yi yawns suddenly, and, after a day of high emotions and packing and moving, is very, very tired. “I think I’ll crash early tonight. Good luck with the show.”

“Sleep tight!” Onyx hugs her, tight around the shoulders and loose everywhere else, and skips out of the room.

Though Ripley does decide to join her in Darius’s large bed that night, it’s still a little empty for Yi’s taste. Everything still smells like Darius’s cologne, and all his mementos and decorations are up. It’s almost like he’s going to come waltzing through the door any minute, and Yi’s mind, eager for him, keeps her awake far longer than she wants. 

“It’s okay, baby,” she mutters, her hand on her stomach. “We have a big family, and your daddy will be back before we know it. We’re gonna be fine.”

Ripley grunts in her sleep and Yi lets herself bury her face in the abnormally good-smelling fur as she finally drifts off.

*

When Yi wakes up the next morning, she’s craving pancakes, so she decides to head to the kitchen and see if the troupe keeps the right ingredients for them around. “If they’re not charging us rent,” she tells her baby, “the least I can do is make some breakfast for them.”

As it turns out, they  _ do _ have ingredients for pancakes, along with bacon and eggs, so Yi decides to make a big breakfast. Knowing the troupe, they got drunk after the show, so some greasy food would probably do them some good.

Avi joins her shortly after she’s done mixing up the pancake batter, his dinosaur hoodie pulled up over his head and sleep in his eyes. Yi is struck by the thought of a little boy or girl with monolid eyes and brown hair. Or maybe with her skin tone and Darius’s lips. It’s a little like a punch to the gut, only in a good way, somehow. “Good morning,” she manages to say.

Of course, Avi is not privy to her inner thoughts, so he doesn’t comment on them. “Are you making breakfast?” he asks.

“Yeah. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Do you want something to drink while I finish up?”

“Do we have orange juice?”

Yi sets her mixing bowl on the counter and opens the fridge to check. “We do!” She pulls the carton out, pours some into a small plastic cup with faded soccer balls on it, and hands it to him. “There you go, buddy.”

Sleepily, Avi hugs her around the knees. “Thank you,” he mumbles, and he wanders off to the living area to nurse his drink.

The rest of the troupe finally stumble out when Yi starts frying up the bacon, more than likely lured from their rooms by the enticing smell. Yi’s just glad the morning sickness is leaving her alone for now; she’s barely eaten the last few days because of how bad it gets, and she’s really tired of not being able to eat good food. 

Wrath looks surprised to see her cooking. “You didn’t have to,” she says.

“You’re letting me live here for free, giving me access to Darius’s bank account, and, I’m sure, comping all my doctor’s bills.” Yi shrugs. “The least I can do is cook for you in the mornings after your shows.”

No one else has any protests to being cooked for, and they all sit around the big table and dig in. Yi looks around at her friends and has to blink back emotion welling in her eyes. Her hand lands on her stomach again, and she thinks,  _ We’re gonna be just fine, baby. _


	2. all the memories we make that will never change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Yi's pregnancy progresses, memories, good, bad, and in between, are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I replayed Darius S1E1 and MC was only in med school for eight months and not a year or two like I said last chapter. Whoops. Let's just say I was counting pre-med so I don't look like a dumbass, okay?

As she steps out of Darius’s stupidly-big shower, Yi stops and looks in the mirror over the vanity. Sure enough, there’s a slight swell to her belly now. “That explains the back pain,” she mutters. “Look, baby, I know you’re just growing and all, but your momma needs a little relief from the back pain. Can you manage that?”

Now that she’s showing, she’s in her second trimester. At least thirteen weeks in. At most, Darius has twenty-seven weeks to make it home if he’s going to see his child born.

As far as Yi knows, the troupe hasn’t told him about her pregnancy. Not if they did what she asked, anyway. Wrath has a way to contact Darius in case of an emergency, and Yi made it very clear that she wasn’t to tell Darius about the pregnancy unless he wasn’t back by the time she went into labor. “He’ll come back right away,” she’d said when Wrath asked why. “He needs this time to figure out who he really is, and I won’t be the one to steal that time away from him.”

“He’s going to be pissed off when he comes back and finds out you didn’t tell him” Wrath warned.

And Yi had just shrugged. “I’m kinda banking on him being so surprised that he’s going to be a father that he forgets to be mad.”

A sudden rapping on Darius’s bedroom door, audible even in his bathroom, startles her out of her thoughts. “Yi?” says Malakai’s voice. “We need to leave for your ultrasound soon.”

“Coming!” Yi calls back, and she proceeds with her quick morning routine.

*

Onyx and Malakai hold her hands at the doctor when the ultrasound shows her her baby. It’s actually starting to look like a baby now, which is  _ exciting, _ and when the doctor asks if she wants to know the sex, she says, “Yes.”

The doctor, a kindly older woman named Dr. Rudy, smiles. “Congratulations, Ms. Cheng, you’re going to have a baby boy.”

*

Now that she knows the sex of the baby, she lets the troupe start on decorating duty.

They’re all a lot more excited about it than she expected, but she’s not complaining about it. That just means she doesn’t have to do any of the actual work outside of approving color swatches. “But no furniture yet,” she says, firm, when Cal stares at a crib just a little too hard for her liking. “I’m going to ask my mom if she still has any of my baby stuff to use so we don’t have to spend a bunch of money on things he’s going to outgrow in a few years.”

As it turns out, her mom kept  _ all _ of her baby stuff, and she’s more than willing to bring it all up to the apartment if one of the guys will go get her. She’s gotten a lot closer to the troupe as a whole since Yi moved out (partly because she has them over once a week for dinner), even if she’s still out of the loop about the whole assassin thing. Yi is glad her distaste is just for Darius is particular and not the group as a whole.

This happiness changes pretty quick when she realizes her mom also brought her old photo albums.

_ “Mom!” _ she whines, looking at the worn albums in dismay. “Why did you have to bring  _ those?” _

“My baby is having a baby. I get to reminisce.”

Cal passes on the baby picture opportunity to help Yi move the numerous cardboard boxes filled with baby furniture and decorations to the room they’ve decided to use as a nursery. It’s the smallest bedroom in the penthouse and not too far from her room, and it’s not close enough to Avi’s room for the baby to wake him up in the middle of the night. 

“Wow,” Yi mutters when she sees the assembly of boxes. “Mom really did bring everything, huh?” 

Cal claps a hand on her shoulder. “We can worry about unpacking all of it later.”

Yi raises an eyebrow at him. “You, putting something off? Who are you and what have you done with the real Cal?”

“I’m pretty sure one of those boxes has a crib in it and I refuse to put that together. Besides,” he adds, “I  _ do _ want to see those baby pictures.”

Yi groans.

When they get back out to the living room, the rest of the troupe, plus Avi and Ripley (who Yi is surprised her mother is so cool with), are gathered around Yi’s mother as she explains the context behind various pictures. “...and  _ this _ is from when Yi broke her arm trying to jay-hop for the first time.”

“I was  _ four _ and trying to jump with a bike that still had training wheels,” Yi says, and everyone turns to look at her and Cal. “And in my defense, I told you I was gonna do it and you didn’t believe me.”

Cal leans over her shoulder to peer at the photo. “Is that a hot pink cast?”

“A hot pink cast that every biker who came into the store signed, thank you very much.”

“I didn’t know you did BMX,” Wrath says, looking excited. “After the baby’s born, we should go out riding together sometime.”

“A motorcycle is a little different from a BMX bike,” Malakai says.

Yi’s mother smiles. “Just a little. I have some videos of Yi’s actual BMX days at home if you’d like to see them.”

“Ooh!” says Onyx. “Yi, could you teach me how to ride a bike on the tightrope?”

“Uh, I’ve never  _ ridden _ a bike on a tightrope, so I’m not sure?” When Onyx looks disappointed, she rushes to add, “I mean, I could build you a bike and teach you how to do BMX tricks, if you wanted to do that.”

“Can you teach me, too?” Avi asks, eyes sparkling.

Yi cuts Cal a surprised look. “You never taught him how to ride a bike?”

“I’ve been busy,” says Cal.

Yi shakes her head and turns back to Avi. “Let’s start with the basics, okay? I’ll take you to the shop one day and help you pick out what you want for your bike.”

“Are you sure you’re up to building bikes?” Malakai asks, sounding concerned. “Couldn’t that be dangerous?”

“I’ve been building bikes since I was, like, ten. I know how to do it safely. Plus,” she adds, “I’m bored out of my mind, just hanging out here all day. I’d kill for something to kill time on.”

And so she gets permission to build bikes again.

*

Avi’s bike is very easy to build, since it’s small and less complicated than the one Onyx would need to use in a high stakes circus act, so she gets that one done first, while Avi is at school. Then she gets started on Onyx’s.

It’s all hot pink and green, of course. What else would Onyx pick out? Yi isn’t much bigger than Onyx, so that helps a lot when she’s building the body, because she can just measure it out with her own torso and legs and just adjust it a little after. 

God, with med school and the whole sin assassin thing, she forgot how calming it is to just… build a bike. She’s working on the pedals now, singing under her breath. [“Never did I think that I would be caught in the way you got me….” ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_3vSa-Ppf8) Sure, Yi’s never had a great singing voice (unlike Wrath, she learned when she heard the ringleader singing in the shower a few days after she moved in), but a silly little thing like a lack of talent wasn’t going to stop her from singing a Panic song. 

There’s a little fluttering in her stomach. She won’t say it’s the baby moving yet, not until she’s actually sure, but she at least suspects he’s starting to shift around a little. “Taking after your dad already,” she tells the baby, very seriously. “Are you going to be a trapeze artist, too? I’m sure he’ll have you up there as soon as you can stand up.” She glances up at the trapeze above her and can’t help but smile. “Maybe he’ll catch you faster than he caught me.”

A small body barrels into her back and almost sends her face-first into the frame of Onyx’s bike. “Are you talking to the baby again?” Avi’s voice asks in her ear.

From somewhere behind them, Cal says, “Be  _ careful, _ Avi. You could’ve hurt Yi or the baby.”

Yi turns her head to look at Avi, whose eyes have gone comically wide. “Did I hurt you?” he asks, voice small.

She laughs and turns her whole body around so she can pull him into her lap. “No, I’m fine, and so’s the baby.” She takes one of his hands and puts it on her belly. “I think you’ll be able to feel him move soon.”

His eyes light up. “Really?” he asks.

“I can kind of feel him now, but it’s still too gentle for you to. But soon.” 

“How are the bikes coming along?” Cal asks, finally close enough to talk to her without shouting.

She tilts her head towards the mess that will be Onyx’s bike. “Avi’s is all done and ready to test out, and Onyx’s is coming along just fine. I bet I can get it done by tomorrow evening.”

Cal clucks his tongue. “Don’t push yourself. It’ll be a few months before Wrath lets her get that bike anywhere near the tightrope anyway.” He extends a hand. “Come on, let’s get back upstairs. Malakai and Wrath are going to start setting up for tonight’s show soon.”

*

“You must really like kids,” she says to Cal while they ride the elevator up to the penthouse.

He looks surprised. “Why do you say that?”

“You haven’t tried to argue with me since I found out I was pregnant.”

“I can start again if you’d like.”

“Shut up.”

*

She picks out a warm grey and a deep, rich purple for the walls in the nursery. 

Yi always knew she wanted purple, but it seemed like a bit much, so she’s hoping the grey will balance it out. Her mom comes over for a weekend to help her and Malakai paint. Wrath claims to have less than zero artistic skill, Onyx points out that she’s the shortest member of the troupe and, therefore, has no reason to be there, and Cal just doesn’t want to paint. Ripley wants to help but she’s, well, a  _ bear, _ so she can’t, and Yi distracts Avi away from the paintbrushes by suggesting he take some blank canvases they’d used to test paint colors and make pictures to hang on the wall.

She’s unendingly grateful for the assortment of old clothes Darius left behind, because she uses them to avoid shopping for maternity clothes. The old, torn, white shirt of his she’s wearing now is splattered with splotches of purple and grey, and she’s pretty sure she has paint on her face, too, from when she raises her paintbrush a little too quickly and paint went flying.

However, Yi doesn’t get to help out too much, on account of her hands going numb at random times. Any time either her mom or Malakai see her hand so much as shake, they take her brush away and make her sit on the floor for at least ten minutes. “Did I do this to you?” she asks her mom.

She grins at her. “Just wait until your boobs start hurting.”

Malakai sputters and Yi groans.

At the end of the weekend, the nursery is painted completely. The walls are mostly grey, but the wall the crib will be against has little purple stars painted as accents. The purple also lines the windows, the baseboards, and the doorframe. It looks pretty good, in her opinion.

Now they just have to put all the furniture together.

*

Sunday before her mom leaves, she teaches Yi how to make  _ jian bing. _ Yi decides to make Chinese food for breakfast on Sundays from now on.

*

Onyx finally forces Yi to come shopping with her when she wears the same pair of (Darius’s) sweatpants for three days straight. The storefronts are all decorated for Christmas even though Thanksgiving hasn’t passed yet. Yi wonders if Darius will be home by Christmas.

Yi has to get measured for a bra for the first time since tenth grade. It’s bizarre.

Onyx smirks at her when they get the results that she’s a whopping two cup sizes bigger than usual. “Darius is one lucky man when he gets home if you still have those.”

Yi blushes and smacks her in the shoulder. “Shut up, oh my god. I have stretch marks.”

“So? He likes you because you don’t take his bullshit. Your good looks are just a bonus.”

She has to buy jeans with elastic in the waistband. It’s not great for her ego.

*

“Is it weird that I’m a little disappointed the baby hasn’t done anything weird?” she asks the troupe one night when she manages to stay awake until they come back up to the penthouse.

“You’re just bored again,” Wrath says, her words slurring just the slightest bit. Compared to Onyx, who’s stripping down to her undies in the middle of the living room, she’s downright sober. “We should find you another hobby.”

“That sounds like an insult,” Malakai says.

“Well, it’s not.”

Yi sighs. “I’ll figure something out.” She rubs her stomach. “What do you think, squirt?”

Then she feels it.

A  _ kick. _

“Holy shit, the baby kicked.”

Before she can say anything else, the troupe is surrounding her, each with a hand on her belly. They all look so… in  _ awe, _ Yi thinks the right word is. Like something earth shattering is happening right beneath their hands. 

It would be perfect, if only Darius were here.

*

Cal comes to her next ob appointment since the others are all busy with a mark. Just because Kozholok has been quiet doesn’t mean every demon in Las Vegas is taking an extended vacation. The rest of the team gets to take the Jeep, so Cal gets a rideshare and they drop Avi off at school on their way to the doctor’s.

Dr. Rudy says everything is going just fine. “Your baby is developing right on schedule and I don’t see any abnormalities. You’re on track for a perfectly healthy delivery, Ms. Cheng.” She gives her a little more advice about the coming weeks, prints out an ultrasound picture, and tells her to call if anything seems off, and then Yi and Cal are free to leave.

Yi holds the ultrasound photo close to her chest on the rideshare back to the penthouse. “Do you remember if we used the last of those old picture frames my mom brought us?” she asks Cal. “I want to frame this for the nursery.”

“I’ll check when we get home and go grab one if we don’t,” he says. “Do you need anything else while we’re out?”

“I don’t think so.”

Then, like any good rideshare driver wouldn’t do, their driver talks to them. “You must be excited,” he says. “I remember what it was like when my wife was pregnant.”

“Oh, we’re not together,” Yi says. “He’s just a friend. My boyfriend’s out of town right now so he’s helping out.”

“Sorry for assuming,” the driver says, sounding sheepish, and the rest of the drive is silent.

It’s not until they’re in the elevator that Cal speaks again. “What are you going to do if Darius doesn’t come back?”

“He will,” Yi says, “so I don’t have to worry about it.”

“For someone so smart, you can be a real idiot sometimes.”

Yi bristles. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means,” Cal says, “that you don’t just have you to worry about anymore. Your son needs stability. He needs to know he can explore things because he has a constant he can fall back on. Darius’s whole schtick is being wild and unpredictable. Does that say ‘stability’ to you?”

“I told him to come back to me a better man.” She knows her voice is rising, but she can’t help it. “He loves me. I know he does. I was in his mind for a few minutes, out there in the desert. He just needs to realize that for himself. He’ll be ready to settle down when he comes home.”

Cal scoffs. “You think you’re the first woman he’s made feel like that?”

Yi crosses her arms and glares. The elevator dings to let them know they’ve arrived, but neither of them move. “I’m not  _ stupid, _ Cal. I know Darius was a playboy. He could walk into a bar and point at any woman attracted to men and have her in bed.”

“And you’re putting your faith in him to help you raise a baby? Even when you’re exhausted from waking up in the middle of the night and fall asleep in the middle of sex, or when you’re too sore for him to touch you, or you don’t have the energy to get all dressed up?”

“You are  _ way _ out of line, Cal. Don’t push it.”

He huffs. “There are better men to raise a baby with. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Who the fuck do you suggest, then?” she demands.

Over these last several months, Yi thinks she’s gotten to know Cal better than he thinks. He hates pickles and glares at Yi every time she puts them on his burger when she irritates him, and he snores when he falls asleep on the living room couch, and if Avi uses his puppy dog eyes he melts like a popsicle in July. 

So when she asks him this question, she expects a snarky comeback.

She doesn’t expect him to grab her by the shoulders and kiss her.

Then, before she has a chance to respond, he pulls away and stalks out of the elevator, leaving her alone with her racing thoughts and her pounding heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...can you tell I'm excited for Cal's route?
> 
> So, here's my justification for this angst: Cal is a very central figure in Darius's route, imo. He constantly warns MC to stay away from Darius and obviously distrusts him. His other major character trait in Darius's route is how protective he is of Avi. I feel like, in this AU, with Yi being around Avi and being so tender and maternal with him, Cal is more inclined to view her in a positive light. The distrust of Darius, Yi acting like a mother towards Avi, and Yi being pregnant with an innocent baby by Darius's hand (dick), all work together to make Cal want to take Darius's place in Yi's life.
> 
> Plus, y'know, it's my fanfic and I can do what I want.
> 
> I won't change the tags because this story isn't Cal/MC, it's Darius/MC. Darius is end game. I just thought this was an interesting way to insert some more conflict.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed! See you soon!


	3. a lonely speaker in a conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yi has to deal with the fallout of Cal's kiss while the holidays--and Darius's possible return--approach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exciting news! I actually got an ask about this on my tumblr! I don't often get asks about my stories so it made me really happy to know someone was so excited about something I wrote that they asked when the next chapter would be posted.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you soon!

Yi barely sees Cal for the next few weeks. 

On one hand, it’s a little comforting. It means se doesn’t have to talk to the guy who shit-talked her boyfriend and then kissed her and left without saying anything. Yi has always kind of hated emotional confrontations so that works in her favor. 

Except she really thought of Cal as a good friend before he kissed her. And she misses that easy friendship. He’s the only one of the troupe besides Darius who snarks at her on a regular basis, and she likes it. It makes her feel closer to Darius, in a way. 

Not that she’ll ever say that to either of them. They’d both just deny any similarities between them.

It’s Wrath who finally pulls her aside and closes the door behind them so they’re alone in the nursery. “What’s going on with you and Cal?”

“It’s nothing,” Yi says, and it sounds weak even to her.

“Yi.” Wrath’s voice leaves no room for argument. “Tell me what happened.”

“He kissed me.”

*

Wrath wants to call Darius right away.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yi hisses at her when she whips her phone out of the pocket of her jeans. “We shouldn’t bother him over something dumb like this.”

“You’re upset. That’s not something dumb.” Wrath’s fists are clenched, and Yi thinks that if she kept her nails any longer than they are she would be drawing blood from her palms.

“Yes it is. Please, Wrath. He’ll come back right away if you tell him what happened and I don’t want him to do that if he’s not ready.”

Wrath sighs. “At least let me check in on him,” she bargains. “I won’t tell him what Cal did.”

Yi nods. She thinks Wrath expects her to leave the room, but she doesn’t. She won’t deny that hearing Darius’s voice would make her feel better. Wrath shrugs and sends a text, and a second later her phone starts ringing. When the call gets answered, Wrath puts it on speakerphone.

_ “Hey, Wrath. What’s up?” _

_ God, _ that voice. He sounds tired. Yi bites at her hand to stop herself from speaking while Darius and Wrath talk to each other. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes. She’s glad she’s pregnant so she can blame the emotional surge on the hormones instead of her just missing a guy.

_ “How’s Yi?” _ Darius asks, and her breath catches in her chest.  _ “Has she still been hanging around with the rest of you?” _

Wrath looks at her. “Yeah.” Then, even though Yi shakes her head, she says, “She’s here, if you want to talk to her.”

There’s a pause on his end of the line.  _ “She is?” _

Yi swallows past a knot in her throat. “Hi, Darius,” she says, so soft she’s not sure if he hears her until he gasps on the other end of the line.

_ “Hey, beautiful,” _ he responds, voice thick with emotion.  _ “Damn, it’s good to hear your voice. I miss you.” _

“I miss you, too,” Yi says.

_ “Hey, now, no crying. You know I hate making you cry.” _

Yi laughs a little. “I’m not crying because I’m sad, though. I’m happy to hear your voice.” Wrath extends her hand and Yi takes the phone. “How are things going on your end?”

_ “Well, I’m definitely not as monstrous as I thought I was.”  _ He doesn’t exactly sound happy about that, and Yi figures it’s because of whatever it is he’s seen.  _ “I don’t think I’m a good person, but I’m not as awful as I could be.” _

“That almost sounds like glowing praise, coming from you.”

_ “You know me too well. On the bright side, that means I might come home soon.” _

Her heart lifts. “Really?”

_ “Yeah. I’m not sure exactly when, but I think I’m almost ready.” _

“Don’t rush it,” Yi says, a token protest. “But I’m sure Avi would love it if you got home by Christmas.”

_ “Just Avi?” _ Darius asks, a teasing tone to his voice.

She smirks. “Well, maybe Ripley, too.” 

_ “Well, I can’t disappoint Ripley, can I?” _

For the first time in weeks, Yi feels truly happy.

*

“Yi and I spoke to Darius earlier,” Wrath says at dinner that night, and everyone perks up. Well, everyone except for Cal, who goes pale and has to quickly school his face into a more neutral expression. “He says he should be ready to come home soon.”

The troupe begins to chatter excitedly, asking for details and making plans, but Yi’s eyes stay trained on Cal through the whole meal.

*

After dinner and before the troupe heads down to pregame, Cal pulls Yi aside and actually looks at her for the first time since he kissed her. “Listen,” he says.

But Yi beats him to the punch. She knows she’s the weakest person in the room at any given time, maybe excluding Avi, but she knows how to slap a pushy guy (a skill she learned during bar hopping in college), and so she does. Her palm stings, but the sound of the blow connecting and the red mark on Cal’s cheek are satisfying enough that she doesn’t care. “Don’t you  _ ever,” _ she hisses, “touch me without my permission again. Don’t act like you know what’s best for me and my child. Don’t say you’d be a better father than Darius. This is his baby as much as it is mine unless he says otherwise.”

Cal has the good sense to look ashamed. “I know, and I’m sorry. It was inappropriate of me to do that to you.”

“Yes, it was.”

“Did you tell any of the others?”

“Wrath noticed and asked. That’s why she called Darius today. We didn’t tell him what happened; I knew he’d come back right away if we did.”

As if on cue, Wrath appears behind Cal’s shoulder. “Caleb,” she says, using his actual name instead of his nickname like an angry mother, “you and I need to have a talk.”

*

Wrath decides Cal’s punishment is that he’s not allowed to go out on missions for a month, he has to tell Darius what he did when he gets home, and he owes Yi a favor. Yi makes him put the baby’s crib together specifically to spite him.

“But if you ever touch someone without their express permission again,” she warns him, “even a poke, I’ll kill you myself.”

And the scary part is that Yi knows it’s not an empty threat.

*

Her mom insists on hosting Thanksgiving dinner and putting the troupe up for the night so they can drink without worrying about driving home. The tiny apartment over the bike shop barely has room for all these people (and Ripley; getting her to the shop without inciting panic from the general public was an adventure and a half), but they make it work. Yi offers to share her old bed with Onyx and Wrath, Cal and Avi take the couch, and Malakai and Ripley sleep on the living room floor.

The turkey is made completely at home. “I even stuffed it,” her mom says. “Pre-stuffed turkey is bad for pregnant women.” 

“Yes, Mom,” Yi says.

Her mom laughs. “You’ll regret that tone when your kid uses it on you, believe you me.”

“Well I’ve got at least a year before he starts talking, so I’m good until then.”

Yi gets the first slice of pumpkin pie, though it’s more whipped cream than pie by the time she starts eating it. She’ll have to ask her mom for the recipe sometime soon.

After dinner, they gather around the TV to watch a rerun of the Macy’s parade. All the adults are drinking, except for Yi, who jokes that her glass of orange juice is just a virgin screwdriver. Avi has a cup of hot chocolate, cooled just enough so he doesn’t burn his tongue. Yi falls asleep on the couch and wakes up at midnight in her bed and with a full bladder. 

_ At least they left me at the edge, _ she thinks, glancing over her shoulder at Wrath and Onyx’s sleeping forms.  _ Alright, baby, let’s get to the bathroom before momma wets herself. _

*

Her feet hurt too much to go Black Friday shopping the next day, but she gives Onyx a list of things she wants (as many diapers as possible, for one thing) and her credit card (the one not linked to Darius’s account). Malakai goes with her to carry bags.

Wrath enlists her help with the motorcycle to keep her busy during the day. It’s in definite need of a tune up, no doubt about that, and the clutch is stuck to the handlebar, so Yi takes care of that for her. 

It wouldn’t have taken very long if Yi didn’t have to take bathroom breaks because the baby insists on using her bladder like a trampoline. 

“I’m surprised I haven’t pissed myself yet,” she grumbles to Wrath after her seventh bathroom break. “Do you think I can yell at Darius about this when he gets back? I feel like it’s warranted.”

Wrath laughs. “I think you could tell Darius to bring you the moon and he’d start building a rocket ship. So, yes, he’ll let you get away with anything you want to blame on him.”

Yi blushes and turns back to the bike.

*

They start decorating for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. The troupe already has a huge tree that Malakai and Cal have to get on ladders to set up, and Onyx enlists Yi’s help in baking edible ornaments.

“Won’t they go bad way before Christmas, though?” Yi asks as they mix the sugar cookie dough.

Onyx winks. “That just means we get to eat them and make more!”

“Fair enough.”

Wrath lifts Avi up on her shoulders so he can put the star on the top of the tree. Yi wonders what her son will be doing this time next year.

*

“Oh my  _ god, _ I don’t need the net!”

Wrath crosses her arms and scowls. “Until you can make it across the tightrope and back, you’re not using the bike without it.”

From her place on the ground, Yi groans. This is an argument Wrath and Onyx have been having for a week straight. Onyx has gotten good at basic BMX tricks while on the ground—at least, as well as she can do when Yi can’t hop on the bike and actually show her what to do—she understands where Wrath is coming from. 

Onyx bristles. “You know I do my best work under pressure! Take the net away and I can do a fucking flip!”

“I’m not risking my tightrope walker and envy assassin on a BMX trick when a net is available.” 

_ Alright, I’m done listening to this. _ “If you guys can’t stop arguing, you don’t get pieces of the yule log I’m making tonight.”

The threat works, and Onyx agrees to use the net for practice.

*

It’s hard to assemble gifts for the troupe simply because she rarely leaves the penthouse by herself anymore.

She has to get them gradually. She only gets one gift per trip, and never a gift for the person escorting her. When Wrath takes her out, she buys Onyx a gift, for example. It’s a slow process, but the one-by-one increase in wrapped gifts under the huge tree is very satisfying to watch.

Today she’s out with Malakai, trying to find the perfect gift for Wrath and looking for any other baby things she may need that she hasn’t gotten yet. It’s fun to look at baby clothes and toys, and Malakai’s excitement just feeds hers. “This matches the purple perfectly!” he says, holding up a soft blanket with an elephant head on the back of it.

It  _ is _ cute, but… “We already have, like, ten blankets for the nursery. I think that’s already kinda overkill.”

Malakai looks disappointed but puts it back. “Why are we in the baby section if you’re not going to buy anything for the baby?”

“I’m getting antsy, I guess.” Her hand falls to her stomach. She can feel the baby moving around. “I don’t want to not have something we need when the baby gets here, because I’m sure I’ll be too tired to run out and get it.”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re gonna be doing this alone. You’ll have Darius and all of us.”

“I know.” She leans against his shoulder for the solid weight of it. “Can we find somewhere to sit down? My feet are killing me.”

Malakai frowns in concern. “Do you need me to carry you?”

“We’ll get kicked out if you do that. I just need to sit, I promise.”

“If I see you getting tired, I  _ will _ carry you, even if it means us getting kicked out.”

“Ugh, you’re annoying.”

“Like any good brother is.”

They find a bench in the store and sit down. From the way Malakai is looking at her feet, he’d be rubbing them if it wouldn’t draw unwanted attention. “I still don’t know what to get Darius for Christmas,” she says.

Malakai laughs. “I mean, you’re literally growing his baby. That’s a pretty good present.”

Yi smacks his shoulder. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”

“Just buy him a corny dad mug or something. You know, like in those pregnancy reveal videos people are doing now.”

She gives a pointed look down at her belly and then back up at Malakai. “I don’t think he’ll need a hint.”

*

It’s another Sunday mid-morning, about a week and some change before Christmas, and Yi is watching the pot of boiling oil carefully to make sure she doesn’t overcook the crullers (the only way she can convince Avi to eat congee) when she hears the elevator to the penthouse open. This is, of course, odd, since the troupe is still asleep and Avi is—or was—reading aloud from a picture book at the kitchen island while she cooks, like he does most mornings.

For one awful moment, she thinks it’s Kozholok, here to, fuck, take her hostage? Use her as bait to catch Darius? He’s still being quiet but who knows when he could actually strike?

But then she hears Avi gasp and jump off the stool. She turns, slowly, and her breath catches in her throat at the sight of a devastatingly handsome man with tan skin and windblown brown hair standing in the living room. His dark eyes dart down to her round belly and then back to her face. His jaw drops.

Avi doesn’t care about whatever inner turmoil he’s going through. He just barrels at him and latches onto his knees.

“Darius! You’re home!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crullers are fried dough sticks and congee is like a rice porridge. They're breakfast foods that are often served together, and people dip the crullers in the congee.
> 
> Also, fun fact: I was originally going to write Yi running into a friend from high school while out shopping with Malakai and have the friend think Malakai was her partner, but I decided against it because I thought it didn't really do much for the overall narrative.


	4. everything is cherries on top

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darius returns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. 
> 
> Note the rating change, kids.
> 
> But seriously, this chapter came out so fast and is also so long because Darius and Yi just never wanted to stop talking. It's cute, yeah, but also, shut the fuck up, the story needs to move along. This is probably throwing the pacing as a whole off, but whatever.
> 
> Smut is in the last section of the chapter and is entirely skippable. The shower scene is suggestive but not outright nsfw. Read safely, kids.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy this chapter, and I hope I'll see you soon with the next part!

Yi drops the large metal spoon she was using to tend to the crullers into the pot in her shock and, as a result, a little grease jumps out and lands on her arm. “Shit!” She reaches for the tap to rinse it off.

Before her hand makes contact with the faucet, a large, warm hand covers her arm. She’s almost afraid to look up, because she’s had dreams like this, and every time she looks up, the dream ends.

The hand not on her arm falls to the swell of her stomach, covered by an old tee shirt she’d found of his and appropriated as a sleep shirt, and he says, awestruck, “Is it mine?”

“I sure hope so,” she manages to joke, “or else that guy who slept with me on top of a moving train was a very convincing impostor.” She finally looks up. His hair is a little longer than it was seven months ago, his skin a little tougher. That’s what convinces her this isn’t a dream. Dream Darius never changed. “Welcome home, Darius.”

He hasn’t moved his hand from her belly, and she feels the baby kick against it. Darius makes a little noise of wonder. “I… Yi…”

“I was going to have Wrath call you if you weren’t back by the time I went into labor,” she says. “I wasn’t going to let you miss the birth of your son.”

Darius drops the bag she didn’t realize he had and falls to his knees. She’s worried for a second, but he cradles her stomach in his hands like it’s the most precious thing in the world. “Yi,” he says again.

She tilts his chin up with a finger. “Don’t I get a hello?”

And then he’s surging up to press his lips to hers. His kiss is rough and possessive, and not at all how he should be kissing her while Avi’s still in the room, but she anchors her hands in his hair and kisses back with a matching fervor. When they part for air, Darius leans his forehead against hers. “I love you,” he whispers against her lips. “I always have. I can’t believe I ever doubted it.”

Her fingers play with the short hairs at the base of his neck. “I love you too.”

Avi’s voice breaks into their little romantic cloud when he cries out, “Yi! The dough sticks!”

“Crap!” she says in response, and she whips around to check on the pot. Thankfully, they’re not burnt, and she turns the stove off and sags in relief. “Thank Christ. I didn’t want to remake those.”

Darius’s chin lands on her shoulder and she leans back against him on instinct. “What are you making?” he asks.

“Crullers and congee. I make something Chinese every Sunday.” Then she turns back around to give him another kiss. “We have a lot to catch up on, huh?”

He brushes his fingers against her stomach. “I’d say so.”

“But you kind of stink, so you should go shower first.”

This startles a laugh out of him. “How about you join me?” he asks, giving her fingers a squeeze.

“If you want breakfast to be ready anytime soon, I can’t.” It’s a token protest, and they both know it, because she doesn’t move away from him. “Or we could just shower after breakfast.”

“Let’s do that,” he says.

Yi finishes getting breakfast ready with Darius at her back and is content.

*

The first member of the troupe to wake up and wander into the kitchen in search of food is Cal. Yi, Darius, and Avi are sitting at the kitchen table, and Darius is squeezed as close to Yi as he can be while still sitting on his own chair. One of Yi’s feet is hooked over one of his. 

Yi feels the tension in the air as soon as Cal sees Darius. Darius must notice how she goes stiff, because he raises an eyebrow at Cal. “Morning, sunshine,” he says, raising his mug of coffee like he’s making a toast.

Cal slinks towards the counter to serve himself some food, acting not unlike a wary cat. “We weren’t expecting you back today.”

Darius shrugs. “I went by the bike shop first to see if I could talk to Yi first, and Ms. Cheng told me she was here.”

“Why didn’t you call?”

“I told Wrath I would probably be coming home soon a few weeks ago. What’s with the third degree?”

Cal shakes his head. “Not here. You and I need to talk later.” He gathers his food and escapes to his room. Avi takes a second to think and then takes off after him, abandoning his half-eaten breakfast in his wake.

Darius looks at Yi, confusion clear, and she shakes her head. “I’ll tell you in the shower,” she says. “That way no one will be able to hear us.”

His eyes narrow. “What is it that you don’t want the others to hear?”

“It’s just personal, is all.” She leans forward and he obliges her silent request for a kiss. “Now, hurry up and eat. The sooner you finish, the sooner I can clean that street stink off you.”

“You just want to see me naked,” Darius says.

“Well, it’s a bonus.”

*

When she finally gets Darius in his bathroom and out of his shirt, Yi sees that he’s lost quite a bit of weight. She thinks he must not have had such regular access to food during his time away. “It’s a good thing Christmas is soon,” she tells him as she wiggles out of her own clothes. “You’re too skinny.”

“You got domestic while I was away!” Darius laughs. He stops laughing when she reaches behind her to undo her bra and her newly-large breasts are bare to him. She smiles a little.  _ I guess I owe Onyx an apology. _

“Yeah, well, the others wouldn’t charge me rent, so I took over the kitchen to earn my keep.” She has trouble getting her shorts down her legs due to her belly and, to her delight, Darius automatically moves to help her. “Thanks, babe.”

He kisses the inside of her thigh and she shudders. “Well,” he says, “it’s not completely altruistic.” His mouth trails higher and higher up, and Yi has to reach back and hold onto the vanity to keep herself upright. “God, I missed you.”

“As… as nice as,  _ oh, _ this is,” Yi manages to gasp out, “you really do need a shower.”

Darius stops what he’s doing to pout up at her. “You’re no fun,” he says, teasing, but he backs off. “But I guess I shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to get you all wet and soapy, huh?”

He blindly reaches behind him to throw the shower on and, knowing and trusting that the penthouse’s water heater works so quickly, pulls the two of them under the spray. “When did you find out you were pregnant?” he asks, more serious now.

That’s the funny thing about showers, isn’t it? They always make serious conversations easier to have.

“A few weeks after you left,” Yi answers. She reaches for the bottle of lavender scented shampoo on the ledge. “I thought it was stress, at first. I mean, it was a pretty stressful few weeks. Could you blame me?” 

Darius takes the shampoo bottle from her hands and gestures for her to turn around, and then she sighs when his fingers start massaging the shampoo into her hair. “I wish I’d known,” he says, sounding the tiniest bit bitter. “I would have come home if you had Wrath tell me.”

“That’s why I didn’t.” She follows his hands and tilts her head backward to rinse the lather out of her hair. “Darius, you needed some time away from all of this. Don’t tell me you didn’t.”

He sighs. She hears movement behind her, and then feels him working conditioner into the ends of her hair. “I’m sure your mom was  _ thrilled.” _

Yi laughs. “Not exactly, but she wasn’t as mad as I expected her to be, either. I moved in here after I found out I was pregnant, and I think that irritated her more than the whole unplanned pregnancy thing did.”

“Where have you been sleeping?”

“Your room.” She turns around and pushes at his shoulders so she can do his hair, though with his scentless shampoo instead of hers. “Your bed is way too big for one person, by the way.”

He chuckles. “It’s a good thing I’m here, then, isn’t it?”

“Very good.” She presses a kiss to his shoulder blade and he rinses his hair out. “Does your hair feel better now?”

“One hundred percent. That cheap shit they give you in motels sucks. We’re bringing our own stuff everywhere we travel.”

The mention of his time away makes her pause. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now. Maybe later. I just want to enjoy being here with you for a little while more.” He turns to face her and wraps his arms around her back. “And our baby. You said it’s a boy?”

“He takes after you. He’s always moving around in there. I was actually hoping you could tell him to knock it off; I have to pee, like, once an hour. It’s ridiculous.” 

Darius’s hand rubs her stomach, so tender it almost makes Yi’s hormones want to cry. “Hey, squirt, take it easy on your mom. You have a whole lifetime to annoy her when you’re not attached to her.”

“Oh, yeah, that sounds great,” she teases. “I think I’d rather have him use my bladder like a trampoline than scream at me, thanks.”

“At least if he’s screaming at you, that means I’ll be around to help out.” He leans down to kiss her and she can kind of taste the shampoo on his lips but she won’t complain. “I’m here now. I promise. I won’t leave either of you ever again.”

“I know.”

“Now are you going to tell me what’s up with Cal?”

Yi flinches. “You’re not going to like it,” she warns.

His embrace tightens around her. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not physically.”

“You’ve tried that trick with me before. What did he do?”

She sighs. “A few weeks before Thanksgiving, he took me to one of my doctor’s appointments, and on the way home our driver thought he was the father.” Darius makes a frustrated noise but doesn’t try to interrupt her, so she continues, “And I don’t know if that triggered it, or if it had been building for a while, but in the elevator back up here he started going on about how the baby needed a better father figure, and when I asked him if he had any suggestions, he kissed me.”

Yi can feel the change in his body as soon as it happens. He’s poised, ready for a fight. “I’ll kill him,” he growls.

“Wrath already threatened that if he ever touched me again,” she tells him. When that doesn’t calm him, she reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck. “It’s in the past, Darius. I slapped him and told him not to poke his nose in our business.”

He takes a deep breath and relaxes by a fraction. It’s not much, but it’s better than he was. “Is that what he wants to talk to me about?”

Yi leans against his chest as well as she can with her belly between them and nods. “Wrath said it’s part of his punishment. He also isn’t allowed to go after marks until after Christmas and he had to do me one favor, so I made him put the crib together.”

The mention of more baby-related things works well to change the subject. “We have a nursery?”

“Yeah. I can show you when we’re dried off. I have a sonogram photo framed in there.”

“That sounds nice.” A pause, then: “Can I still hit Cal later?”

Yi laughs and cranes her neck up for another kiss. “Sure, babe. You just need to help me shave my legs first.”

*

Onyx shrieks in delight when Yi and Darius emerge from their shower and launches her small body at Darius with all the force of a freight train. Yi dodges just in time to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of their enthusiastic reunion. “You’re home!” Onyx says, wrapping herself around Darius like a koala. “You’re home and you know about the baby!”

Darius widens his eyes dramatically. “What baby?” He makes a big show of turning to look Yi up and down. “Don’t assume she’s pregnant just because he gained weight, Onyx. That’s insensitive.”

Malakai laughs and gives him a hearty slap on the shoulder. “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be home,” Darius returns. He drops Onyx in an ungraceful heap and pulls Yi back to his side. “Thanks for taking care of Yi while I was gone. I really owe you guys.”

Yi groans. “I’m an adult, you know. I could have taken care of myself.”

“I know.”

Wrath smiles indulgently at them. “Of course we took care of her. She’s one of us now, assassin or no.”

“Plus her mom makes really good food,” Onyx says.

“Oh, it’s so good to know you guys are using me for my mom’s cooking. It really makes me feel loved.”

This makes the troupe laugh, and everything is very nice for a few minutes, until Cal comes out of his room.

Darius’s eyes lock onto him like a missile and then he’s moving, all fluidity and grace as he rears back a fist and punches Cal straight on the nose. 

Onyx and Malakai shout, alarmed, but Wrath holds out an arm to keep them from intervening. Ripley comes out of Onyx’s room and puts herself between Yi and Darius and Cal. From what Yi can see when she leans to the side to peek, Cal is winded and has a bloody nose, but he’s not fighting back, and the only blow that’s been dealt is that first punch. “She told you, then,” Cal says, sounding resigned.

“I still want to hear it from you,” Darius growls.

Cal squares his shoulders and looks Darius in the eye. “I kissed Yi.” Onyx and Malakai gasp and Ripley whips around to look at Yi in a very comical way, though she can’t appreciate the humor in it right now. “It was inappropriate and disrespectful of me, both towards Yi and towards your relationship.”

“It was,” Darius says. “I love Yi and I love our son, and I’m going to do my best to be a better man for them every day for the rest of my life, but everything that happens in our relationship is between us and us alone. You have no business there.” Then, much to the surprise of everyone in the room, he slaps Cal on the shoulder companionably. “Now go get cleaned up. After all this time away, I wanna get back on the trapeze.”

*

Yi, as she has been doing often since moving in with the troupe, sits on the circus floor and tilts her head up to watch them practice. No matter how many times she sits here to watch them without the bombastic lights and music and crowd, she remembers that first time Darius brought her here to talk to her, and how intimate it felt to be up in the air in his arms with no one else around.

_ Of course, _ she thinks, rubbing her stomach,  _ I can’t go up there right now. I feel like I’d get strapped to a chair if I even joked about it. _

She sees Darius laugh at Onyx when he sees the net, but that changes when she gets on the bike and pops a wheelie on the tightrope. She makes it almost all the way across the rope before she falls and hits the net, but she just jumps back up and starts climbing the ladder again. Yi frowns down at her stomach. “You’re going to give me a heart attack when you get up there, I can just feel it.” 

Avi, sitting next to her, leans against her arm. “Do you think the baby will try to do trapeze?”

“Knowing who his father is, I wouldn’t be surprised. I always wondered why Cal never had you doing something around the circus.” 

“It’s too scary for me,” Avi says, and his voice sounds very small. “I like watching them do it, but I’m too scared to do it. Just like with the demons.”

Yi wraps her arm around his shoulder and gives him a squeeze. “That’s fine. Everyone has different skills.”

“That’s what Cal says.”

Yi looks back up and sees Darius on the trapeze bar. He’s a little out of practice, as shown by his clumsiness, but he’s wearing such a big grin that it spreads on her face as well. She can’t imagine Darius without the trapeze, and she wonders how he was able to satisfy that particular itch while he was away.

Avi notices her watching Darius and asks, “Are you and Darius going to get married now?”

She feels her face heat up. “Why do you ask?”

“You’re having a baby together and now that he’s home you’ll be sleeping in the same room. Isn’t that what married people do?”

“We still have to talk about it,” Yi says. “Darius just got home. Let’s give it a little more time, okay?”

Darius makes a heart-stopping leap from one bar to another and whoops in joy, oblivious to her and Avi’s conversation, and something twists in her gut. It’s not like she hasn’t thought about it. One of the biggest questions she’s asked herself in the last few months is which last name the baby will take.  _ Should he be a Ricci, in case Darius and I ever get married? Or should he be a Cheng, because we’re not married right now? _

“Do you want to marry Darius?” Avi asks.

She looks up at Darius, flying high over their heads, and says, “Yes, I think I do.”

*

Later, when Avi has been tucked in and the rest of the troupe is pregaming at the casino, Yi and Darius retire to their room. It’s a little thrilling to think of it as “their room” now, because Darius is back and he loves her, and his hand is on the small of her back, and she doesn’t have to sleep alone anymore.

As soon as the door closes behind them, Darius is on her, pinning her to the wall and kissing her like she’s oxygen and he’s a drowning man. She remembers something like this from the first time they made love, back before they knew Darius was a demon. Except now she has a huge baby belly between them.

Darius bites her lower lip and she gasps. “Fuck, Darius…”

He abandons her mouth and starts trailing kisses down her neck. The fingers of one hand slide into her sweatpants and toy with the edge of her panties. “Let me show you how much I missed you,” he rasps when he gets to her collarbone. Heat flares between her legs, so, so close to his fingers, but still too far away. “Please, Yi.”

“I can’t lay on my back,” she says.

He grins up at her and her heart flip-flops in her chest. “I can get around that,” he says, his voice full of a thrilling promise that makes Yi go weak at the knees. His fingers work their way under her shirt. 

“Okay,” she says. “Okay, yeah.” She cups his face and draws his mouth back up to hers.

As if to show that his muscles haven’t deteriorated too much, Darius hooks his arms under her ass and hauls her up into the air. She squeals and clutches at his shoulders, but he holds steady, keeping her in place as he moves them towards his bed.  _ Their _ bed. He ends up sitting on the edge of it with her knees on either side of his legs so she can feel his cock through his jeans, and Yi says, “Oh.”

They have to separate to shed their clothes, but when they’re both bare, he hauls her back onto his lap. “Are you ready?” he asks against her shoulder.

She shakes her head. “Can you…?”

Before she can finish her question, his fingers are working their way through the folds of her cunt, and she throws back her head and bites her lip to keep from crying out too loudly. The last thing she needs in the middle of the first sex she’s had in months is for someone to burst in because they think something’s wrong. “That’s it,” says Darius, and his voice has that low, growly tone that turns Yi’s insides to liquid. “Come on, baby.”

“Darius,” she says, because that’s the only word that matters right now. 

He nips at her shoulder and lets the tip of one finger sink into her.

Yi clenches and  _ floods, _ and it would be embarrassing how turned on she is if Darius didn’t groan at the feel of it.  _ “Fuck,” _ he says. “You’re so  _ tight, _ babe.”

“Well,” she gasps, “it’s been a while.”

He makes a pleased little growl at the admission. “For me, too.”

_ “Good.” _ He adds a second finger and she almost howls. She tastes blood from biting her lip so hard, and her nails dig into Darius’s shoulders to keep herself upright. His fingers hit that cluster of nerves that make her eyes cross and her legs clench around his thighs. “Right there, fuck,  _ please—” _

Darius grins at her and grinds the heel of his hand against her clit, and she’s gone, shuddering all over and clenching around his hand. He works her through it gently, letting her ride out her waves of pleasure until she sags forward, her swollen belly pressed to her abs and her forehead pressed to his shoulder. His hand is extracted from between her legs slowly and he presses soothing kisses to her head and neck while she pants to catch her breath. “So beautiful,” he says. “So good for me. God, Yi, I missed you.”

“Missed you, too,” she says. “Just. Give me a second.”

“Anything you need.”

They sit there like that for a few minutes, and Yi slowly comes back to herself to the nice feeling of Darius tracing shapes in the sweat on her back. She shifts her hips a little so that her cunt rubs against his cock and they both moan. “Okay. Okay, I’m ready.”

“Are you sure?” Darius asks.

She kisses his brow and grinds against him again until his hands clench at her hips. “I want you in me,” she says. “I want you to fuck me like you’re trying to put another baby in me.”

He growls and surges up to kiss her, all teeth and tongue and passion, and then he lets himself be pushed back so Yi has more room to maneuver. There are quite a few ways they could have sex like this, but she wants to see his face. She’s had to be without it for too long already. She scoots forward so that her belly drags against his stomach, laces the fingers of one of her hands with one of his to brace herself, and sinks down.

_ God, _ she missed this. Just the intimacy of him inside her is enough to bring tears to her eyes, and she uses her free hand to wipe them away. Darius startles at the sight of the wetness on her cheeks. “Are you okay?” he asks.

“Yeah. I just missed you so much.”

His free hand comes up to cup her cheek. “I’m never leaving you for that long again.”

Yi turns her head to kiss his palm, and he groans at the feeling of it. Then she rocks her hips forward.

It’s a frenzied coupling. Yi is still sensitive from her first orgasm and Darius admitted that he’s out of practice, so she knows neither of them is expecting this to last very long. Her thighs and hips burn from the effort of rising and falling and she knows she’ll have a hard time walking in the morning, but Darius’s cock is so hot and thick inside her that she can’t bring herself to care. She keeps making keening little moans and nonsense noises that could have been words. She can’t even focus on keeping her voice down anymore and just hopes Avi is so deeply asleep that he won’t ask any awkward questions in the morning.

Darius makes a valiant effort to last longer than her, but his face screws up and he shouts as he comes, and Yi moans at the hot flood inside her. But what he currently lacks in stamina, he more than makes up for in enthusiasm, because not even a second after he comes he’s pressing his fingers to her clit again. “Come on, baby,” he growls, and she keens. “Come for me again. I know you can do it.”

She shakes all over and tilts her head back. Beneath her, Darius leans up on his elbows to kiss at her breasts and stomach. When his lips close around one of her sensitive nipples, it sends her over the edge, and she goes all tight and sobs out, “Darius!”

When she comes back to herself, Darius has her lying on her side, his fingers combing through her now-sweaty hair and his lips trailing up and down her neck, not quite kissing but something similar enough to make her sigh. “I love you,” he says, and she knows now, in the dark space between their bodies, that she’ll never get tired of hearing him say that for as long as she lives.

“I love you, too,” she tells him, and his lips curve against her skin. She can’t see with her belly in the way, but Yi can feel his come sliding out of her, and even though she loves the feeling of it right now, she knows she’ll feel disgusting in the morning. “I hate to ask, but could you grab a washcloth?”

He kisses her on the lips, a chaste, tender, sweet kiss that contrasts oh-so-well with the frenzied sex, and he says, “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

Yi sits up to appreciate Darius’s butt as he disappears into the bathroom, and she hides a little smile at the scratch marks on his shoulders. It’s strangely satisfying to see him marked up by her hand.

The knowing smile he gives her when he comes back tells her he knows she was watching him, but he’s quiet as he cleans her up, gently wiping their come from her thighs. The cloth is just warm enough to be pleasant against the rapidly cooling sweat on her skin and she sighs. “That feels good,” she says.

He kisses her knee before getting back up to throw the washcloth in a hamper and rejoining her in the bed. She wishes she could curl against his chest, but she settles for letting him slide up behind her and lay an arm across her distended middle. His hands land on her stomach. “He’s not moving around so much right now,” he says in her ear.

“He has awake-sleep cycles now. He just doesn’t usually decide to sleep when I want to.”

He laughs and kisses her behind her ear. “Maybe all that exercise wore him out.”

“I sure hope so. I don’t want to have to get up to pee again tonight.”

“Good night, Yi.”

And with his warmth at her back again, it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I am someone who has never even kissed anyone, let alone had sex, I literally looked up a guide to writing sex scenes, and so the resource I used is an article titled "25 Humpalicious Steps For Writing Your First Sex Scene." The author is really funny throughout and provides very useful advice, so if you're interested, please check it out.


	5. does she know that my destiny lies with her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trips are made, conversations are had, and truths are revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all, I'm back!
> 
> I'm borrowing from both Darius's third season and Wrath's third season in this chapter, and you'll see what I mean near the end. I wrote this over the course of several weeks and the pacing is probably weird, but any progress is good progress, and I can't wait to get back into writing. I hope y'all enjoy!

Two things are decided the next day during breakfast.

One: Darius won’t be rejoining the troupe for shows or missions until after the baby is born. There are a few reasons for this decision. For one, Darius is out of practice after a few months of being away. He needs to get his weight and muscles back to what they used to be for him to be safe. There’s also Kozholok to worry about; the less of a spectacle he makes of himself, the safer he, Yi, and the baby will be.

Two: Darius has to explain himself to Yi’s mother. This is mostly a Wrath decree, because she wants to keep the peace between the troupe and a woman who cooks for them once a week. “Plus,” she says, eyeing Darius’s hand on Yi’s knee, “I don’t think you want your child’s grandmother to hate you, right?”

Cal is obviously in the doghouse with the rest of the troupe members, but no one is openly hostile with him. They mostly just make him do menial tasks, like hand-washing the dishes after breakfast even though they have a dishwasher and Onyx asking him to do her laundry for her. It’s a very sibling-like dynamic, and, thankfully, Cal doesn’t seem too put out by all of it. Yi’s glad; she would hate for Cal to be alienated like that.

She’s not quite ready to forgive him for the things he said, but she doesn’t want him to suffer, either.

*

After breakfast, Yi finally shows Darius the nursery. It’s mostly an excuse to be alone together again, so when Darius is finished poking around, he sits in the rocking chair and pulls her into his lap. “When’s your next doctor’s appointment?” he asks her.

“This afternoon,” she says. “At two. Do you want to come with me?”

“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

She cranes her neck to kiss his cheek. “Of course I don’t mind. I’d love for you to come.” Then she laughs and adds, “My doctor keeps pestering me about meeting you, actually. Her name is Dr. Rudy. I think you’ll like her.”

“After, we should go see your mom.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Wrath’s right. I need to clear the air with her before the baby comes.” His hand brushes her stomach again. “I just need to prove I’m going to do right by you.”

“She compared you to my dad,” Yi admits.

He winces. “The one who ran out on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“Hey.” She cups his face and makes sure he looks at her. “You came back. That means a lot more than words ever could.”

He kisses her sweetly on the lips and they sit there in a comfortable bubble for a while longer. 

*

Dr. Rudy is indeed thrilled to finally meet the father of Yi’s baby. She can tell as soon as she walked into the exam room that Darius is The Boyfriend, because she’s never seen Yi look at her other friends like that. “I’m glad you got back before your little guy decided to make an appearance,” she jokes as she gets the sonogram machine up and running. “Everything’s going just fine. Ms. Cheng is having a perfectly normal, healthy pregnancy.”

Darius smiles and rubs Yi’s hand. “I’m glad.”

The sonogram appears on the machine, and there he is, their baby. Yi hears Darius’s gasp next to her. “Right now,” Dr. Rudy says, “he’s a little over a foot long. That’s a little small for thirty-two weeks, but nothing to be worried about.”

“Holy  _ shit,” _ Darius says. His eyes are glued to the screen, where he can see their son moving around. 

She turns her head to smile at him. “That’s him,” she says. “That’s our baby.”

Darius squeezes her hand and says nothing, but she’s pretty sure he’s happy about it.

“You’ll be considered full term in five weeks,” Dr. Rudy says. “As long as you avoid too much stress and keep a healthy diet, I can’t see any complications that could arise between now and then.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dr. Rudy casts an amused look in Darius’s direction. “I’m guessing you’ll want a sonogram picture.”

Yi laughs. “Yeah, I think so. Right, Darius?”

Darius just nods, and Dr. Rudy shakes her head and prints out the picture.

*

Darius drives them to the shop after her appointment. They have a copy of her most recent sonogram as a peace offering for her mom; Darius never said exactly what happened when he talked to her yesterday, and Yi can only hope her mom isn’t too angry.

They don’t get out of the Jeep as soon as he parks. Instead, he leans over to kiss her and says, “Let me talk to her alone.”

“Are you sure?” Yi asks.

He nods. “Her issue is with me. I won’t make you play mediator.”

“Alright.” She puts one hand over his and squeezes, and she can feel him relax a little at the contact. “I’ll stay in the shop, then. Just don’t take too long, okay? Otherwise I’ll think Mom killed you or something.”

“I think I can handle myself a little better than that.”

“You’ve obviously never met an angry Chinese mom, then.”

*

Yi, like she predicted, has to watch the shop while Darius and her mom talk in the apartment upstairs. Her mom had given him the stink eye when they walked in together but agreed to speak with him privately. So far, Yi can’t hear any shouting from upstairs, so she guesses the conversation is going well.

Some of the regulars are both surprised and thrilled to see her again. “Your mom said you had a bun in the oven,” says Gar, a rugged old man who had drawn a unicorn on her hot pink cast when she was four because she asked for it, “but I didn’t believe her!”

Yi ducks her head and blushes. “Guilty as charged,” she says, rubbing her stomach. “He’s moving around in there. Want to feel?” 

He does, and the baby kicks against his hand rather enthusiastically. Gar laughs. “That’s a strong little guy, huh?”

“Takes after his dad,” Yi says.

“What’s your guy do for a living?” Gar asks. “Your mom never said.”

“He’s a trapeze artist for the Night of Sin circus.” Gar looks skeptical, so she rushes to add, “It pays a lot better than it sounds, I promise. Tickets are over a thousand bucks a pop. We live in a penthouse over a casino. We have plenty of money.”

“I knew you were only with me for my money,” Darius’s voice says, and Yi turns around to see him coming out of the employee’s only door that really just hides the stairs to the apartment. His arms wrap as far around her middle as they can and he drops a kiss on her forehead. 

“Well,” she jokes, “what other good qualities do you have?”

“My dashing good looks, for one.”

“Whatever you say, babe.” Yi turns her head a little to look at Gar again. “Darius, I want to introduce you to Gar. He’s been coming here since I was a kid.”

Darius takes one hand off of Yi and extends it to shake one of Gar’s. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“So  _ you’re _ the guy that got our little Yi knocked up?”

Yi knows Gar’s just joking, but Darius doesn’t, and Gar, at almost six feet tall and more muscle than fat, is an intimidating man. Darius winces. “Uh.”

“I haven’t been ‘little Yi’ since I was ten, Gar,” Yi protests.

Gar laughs. “You’re still ‘little Yi’ as long as you can’t reach the top shelf without a footstool.”

“That’s discrimination.”

“That’s facts.” Gar finally smiles at Darius, and Yi feels him relax against her. “It’s good to meet you, kid. How old’re you?”

“Twenty-nine. My birthday is at the end of July.”

“And Yi says you’re a trapeze artist?”

“One of the best.” Darius squeezes Yi’s hip. “I caught Yi out of a freefall the night I met her.”

“Because you singled me out of the crowd as a volunteer,” Yi fires back.

“I knew you’d have the balls if I dared you.”

“She’s always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie,” Gar says, humor evident in his voice. “One time when she was in middle school, she tried strapping fireworks to her bike to see if they would make it go faster.”

Darius lets out a shocked laugh and Yi scowls. “I broke my damn nose,” she says. “You should be more sympathetic to a pregnant woman, Gar.”

“Oh, come on, sweetheart! This is the first time you’ve liked a boy well enough to bring him around, and you went and got pregnant before you introduced us! I have a lot of embarrassing stories to catch him up on.”

The employee’s only door opens behind them again, and when Yi looks towards it, she sees her mother emerge. “Please stop harassing my daughter,” she says, voice light like it always is when she jokes with their regulars. “Unless you want  _ me _ to tell the story of when Yi came to ask you for help with her period and you—”

“Ahhhh, nope! You awful woman, I’ll stop.”

“Good. Now buy what you need and get out, please. I’m closing up early today.”

*

Half an hour later finds Yi, her mom, and Darius all sitting in the living room of the apartment over the shop. Yi knows she should probably tone the PDA down a little around her mom, but she’s been separated from Darius for too long already, so she doesn’t pull away when he tugs her legs up and into his lap so he can rub her feet. She groans in appreciation. “Thanks, babe.”

Darius squeezes her knee with his free hand. “I could tell they were hurting. You kept shifting your weight downstairs.”

“Was I? I didn’t realize.”

“That’s why you have me around.”

Her mom clears her throat, and Yi jumps a little and turns her head to face her. “Oh! Sorry, Mom.”

“I already talked to Darius,” her mom says, crossing her arms, “but I’d like to hear your side of everything. Do you love him?”

That’s the easiest question in the world. “Yes.”

“And does he love you?”

Yi feels Darius stiffen under her, but she doesn’t waver. “Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he shows me with everything he does.” Yi squeezes his hand and feels him relax. “I know Darius like I know myself. He loves me, Mom, never doubt that.”

Her mom regards them both with a critical eye for a moment longer than is really comfortable and sighs. “Alright. I’ll give him a chance. Have you decided what name my grandson will have?”

Yi freezes up because, well,  _ no, _ they  _ haven’t _ talked about it, but Darius pipes up with, “I don’t really care about my name. It has no real meaning to it. I’d like the baby to be a Cheng instead of a Ricci.”

“Are you sure?” Yi asks, a hand falling to her belly.

Darius presses a kiss to her temple. “I’m positive.”

*

When they’re done talking to her mom, she and Darius hop to the next building over to see Nahara.

Yi’s gut twists a little at the thought of seeing the seer again. Their last interaction wasn’t exactly positive, after all. But Wrath insisted. “Your baby is half demon, Yi,” she said. “You need to make sure it’s not going to hurt you.”

So Yi squeezes Darius’s hand and lets him lead her inside.

Nahara takes one look at them and almost combusts. Her hair whips around her like an angry cat’s tail and when she speaks, the air goes still. “Yi Cheng,” she says, “what is your father’s name?”

Yi and Darius both stiffen at the mention of her deadbeat dad, but Yi answers, “Bai. Bai Cheng.”

The crease in Nahara’s brow deepens and her frown widens. “I feared as such.” Suddenly looking very tired, she gestures to the sitting area of her shopfront, inviting them both to sit. Darius pulls Yi into his lap and she leans back against him, confused and worried.  _ Why does Nahara know his name? _

Nahara disappears through a door and returns with two cups of tea. The one she hands Yi smells of ginger, which would have been nice back when she was still vomiting every few hours, but she doesn’t say this. “Is something wrong?” she asks instead.

Nahara sighs. “I’ve had a suspicion for a while now,” she says, “and your child and your father have confirmed it.”

Darius tightens his hold on Yi as she shivers at the chilly tone in Nahara’s voice. “What do you mean?” His voice is stern. Protective. 

“It means that Yi is about as human as you are.”

And the world spins.

**Author's Note:**

> A few little notes:
> 
> 1.) I imagine the conception taking place the night on the train, since the narrative mentioned the blanket Darius brought but no condom.
> 
> 2.) Darius WILL be back before the baby is born. He may come back next chapter, he may come back right before Yi's water breaks. But he WILL be present for the birth of his child. Y'all just don't know when.
> 
> 3.) Like I said on my tumblr yesterday, I imagine Yi as a huge P!atD fan, so both the title of this fic and all the chapter titles will be references to their discography. I think their tone fits really well with SWM's themes and art, and I just like it, and it's my fic, so I can do what I want.
> 
> See y'all soon!


End file.
